Conventional elbow surge arresters have two substantially perpendicularly oriented legs, with one leg housing a probe and another leg housing a plurality of metal oxide varistor blocks. Typical surge arresters of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,012 to Cunningham, U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,001 to Yaworski, U.S. Pat. No. 5,128,824 to Yaworski, U.S. Pat. No. 5,309,313 to Yaworski, and published European patent application Ser. No. 0 033 804.
In these conventional elbow arresters, gas generated from the varistor blocks will flow into the area of the probe during fault conditions. The build up of gas pressure in the probe area can cause disconnection of the elbow arrester from the bushing to which it is connected.